Phillies: 8 milestones to watch for this season

Which milestones should Phillies fans be watching for this season?

With every new season comes new milestones, and that’s certainly the case for the Phillies this season. Several players are reaching some lofty career milestones, whether they’re young stars breaking out or a veteran looking to cement their legacy.

We’re looking to see who will hit some of those big time, round numbers that stand out on the back of baseball cards and could someday give a player their Hall of Fame argument.

One honorable mention that would be a franchise milestone is 9,900 wins in franchise history, something the Phillies can reach with 75 wins this year. Hopefully, that’s not too much to ask for.

Here are a couple of individual milestones coming up for several Phillies this season.

Joe Girardi – 1,000 wins

It won’t take much for the Phillies new skipper Joe Girardi to reach 1,000 career wins on the pine. He’s just 12 wins short of the milestone, something that will hopefully come in the first month of the season.

Girardi has averaged nearly 90 wins a season in 11 years with the Marlins and Yankees. While leading the Yankees for a decade he never won fewer than 84 games and won at least 90 games five times. That included a 103 win 2009 season when the Yankees beat the Phillies in the World Series.

Reaching 1,000 wins would tie Girardi with the Phillies all-time winningest manager Charlie Manuel for 64th all-time. Another 1,000 wins would put Girardi in Cooperstown territory, but we have a long ways to go before that discussion.

Every manager with 2,000 wins except former Phillies manager Gene Mauch (who never won a championship in 26 seasons) and Bruce Bochy, who will make the Hall of Fame, has a plaque in Cooperstown.

But right now, Expectations for the Phillies are all over the place. They figure to win at least 85 games and contend for a playoff spot at worst under Girardi. The closer they can get him to those 2,000 career wins, the better.